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India raises defence budget to $72.6 bln amid tensions with China

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India proposed on Wednesday 5.94 trillion rupees ($72.6 billion) in defence spending for the 2023-24 financial year, 13% up from the previous period's initial estimates, aiming to add more fighter jets and roads along its tense border with China, Reuters reported.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman allocated 1.63 trillion rupees for defence capital outlays - an expenditure that would include new weapons, aircraft, warships and other military hardware, as she unveiled nearly $550 billion of total federal spending in the annual budget for 2023-24 starting in April.

She said 2.77 trillion rupees would be devoted to military salaries and benefits in 2023-24, 1.38 trillion on pensions for retired soldiers, and further amounts for miscellaneous items.

itharaman also revised the defence budget for the current financial year ending in March to 5.85 trillion rupees from earlier estimates of 5.25 trillion.

In the past few years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has ramped up spending to modernise the military, while underlining his government's commitment to boosting domestic production to supply forces deployed along two contentious borders, Reuters reported.

Laxman Behera, a defence expert at government-funded Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, said the hike in the defence budget was "reasonable but not sufficient", considering requirements for military modernisation.

"The government has tried to allocate reasonable funds for defence forces while balancing other priorities during the pre-election budget," he said, noting India needed more funds in view of growing friction with China along disputed borders.

The total Indian defence budget, estimated at about 2% of GDP, is still lower than China's 1.45 trillion yuan ($230 billion) in allocations for 2022, which New Delhi sees as posing a threat to neighbours including India and Japan, read the report.

"The overall increase in the armed forces’ budget is as anticipated, but likely lower than what they asked for to beef up operational capabilities," said Amit Cowshish, former financial adviser for acquisitions at the Defence Ministry.

India plans to spend near 242 billion rupees ($3 billion) for naval fleet construction and 571.4 billion rupees ($7 billion) for air force procurements including more aircraft, the latest budget document showed.

The South Asian giant employs 1.38 million people in its armed forces, with large numbers deployed along borders with nuclear-armed rivals China and Pakistan.

Although the defence budget allocations fell short of military expectations, they are likely to grow as the economy recovers from two years of pandemic curbs, according to Behera.

India and China share a 3,500-kilometre (2,100-mile) frontier that has been disputed since the 1950s. The two sides went to war over it in 1962.

At least 24 soldiers were killed when the armies of the Asian giants clashed in Ladakh, in the western Himalayas, in 2020 but tensions eased after military and diplomatic talks, Reuters reported.

A fresh clash erupted in the eastern Himalayas in December last year but no deaths were reported.

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Dubai’s Emirates Airlines bans pagers, walkie-talkies after Lebanon attacks

Several other airlines have also suspended flights to Beirut and other regional airports amid heightened tensions.

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Dubai's Emirates Airlines has banned passengers from carrying pagers and walkie-talkies on its flights, following last month's attacks on Lebanese group Hezbollah involving communication devices that exploded, Reuters reported.

"All passengers traveling to, from, or via Dubai are prohibited from transporting pagers and walkie-talkies in checked or cabin baggage," the airline said in a statement on its website on Friday. It added that any prohibited items found will be confiscated by Dubai Police as part of heightened security measures.

In the deadly September attacks, thousands of booby-trapped Hezbollah pagers and hundreds of radios exploded - attacks that were widely blamed on Israel but which it has not claimed, read the report.

The Middle East's largest airline also announced that flights to Iraq and Iran will remain suspended until Tuesday, while services to Jordan will resume on Sunday.

Flights to Lebanon will remain suspended until Oct. 15 due to escalating Israeli attacks against Iran-backed Hezbollah, including strikes near Beirut's airport.

Several other airlines have also suspended flights to Beirut and other regional airports amid heightened tensions, Reuters reported.

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US to give $157 million in humanitarian aid in response to Lebanon crisis

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The United States will provide nearly $157 million in new humanitarian assistance to support populations affected by conflict in Lebanon and the region, the State Department said in a statement on Friday.

"This funding will address new and existing needs of internally displaced persons and refugee populations inside Lebanon and the communities that host them. The assistance will also support those fleeing to neighboring Syria," the State Department said.

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US President Biden does not believe there will be ‘all-out-war’ in Middle East

Asked by reporters in Washington on Thursday how confident he was that such a war could be averted, Biden said, “How confident are you it’s not going to rain? Look, I don’t believe there is going to be an all-out war. I think we can avoid it.

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U.S. President Joe Biden said he did not believe there is going to be an "all-out war" in the Middle East, as Israel weighs options for retaliation after Tehran's largest ever assault on its arch-enemy.

However, Biden said more needed to be done to avoid a Middle East war, as Israel's military hit Beirut with new air strikes in its battle against Lebanese armed group Hezbollah, Reuters reported.

Asked by reporters in Washington on Thursday how confident he was that such a war could be averted, Biden said, "How confident are you it's not going to rain? Look, I don't believe there is going to be an all-out war. I think we can avoid it.

"But there is a lot to do yet, a lot to do yet."

While the United States, the European Union, and other allies have called for an immediate 21-day ceasefire in the Israel-Lebanon conflict, Biden said the U.S. was discussing with Israel its options for responding to Tehran's assault, which included Israel striking Iran's oil facilities.

"We're discussing that," Biden told reporters.

His comments contributed to a surge in global oil prices, and rising Middle East tension has made traders worry about potential supply disruptions.

However, Biden added: "There is nothing going to happen today." Asked later if he was urging Israel not to attack Iran's oil installations, Biden said he would not negotiate in public.

On Wednesday, the president said he would not support any Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear sites.

On Thursday, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, told CNN his country had "a lot of options" for retaliation and would show Tehran its strength "soon".

A U.S. official said Washington did not believe Israel had decided yet how to respond to Iran.

Beirut's southern suburb of Dahiye, a stronghold of the Iran-backed Hezbollah, came under renewed strikes near midnight on Thursday after Israel ordered people to leave their homes in some areas, residents and security sources said.

The air raids targeted Hezbollah official Hashem Safieddine, rumoured successor to its assassinated leader Hassan Nasrallah, in an underground bunker, Axios reporter Barak Ravid said on X, citing three Israeli officials.

Safieddine's fate was not clear, he said.

Israel's military declined comment.

Israel said Hezbollah launched about 230 rockets from Lebanon towards Israel on Thursday.

Hezbollah said it targeted what it called Israel's "Sakhnin base" for military industries in Haifa Bay on the Mediterranean coast of northern Israel with a salvo of rockets.

Late on Thursday, Hezbollah said it also targeted Israel's "Nesher base" in Haifa with a salvo of Fadi 2 rockets.

G7 CALLS FOR RESTRAINT

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed Iran will pay for Tuesday's missile attack, and Washington said it would work with its longtime ally to ensure Iran faced "severe consequences."

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, speaking in Doha, said on Thursday that Tehran would be ready to respond.

"Any type of military attack, terrorist act or crossing our red lines will be met with a decisive response by our armed forces," he said.

Israel, which has been fighting Hamas in the Palestinian territory of Gaza for almost a year, sent troops into southern Lebanon on Tuesday after two weeks of intense airstrikes in a worsening conflict that has drawn in Iran and risks involving the United States.

The Group of Seven nations, which includes the U.S., Britain and allies, on Thursday condemned Iran's missile attack on Tuesday and reaffirmed their commitment to Israel's security.

But the group also called for restraint, a ceasefire in Gaza and halt to hostilities in Lebanon.

"A dangerous cycle of attacks and retaliation risks fuelling uncontrollable escalation in the Middle East, which is in no one's interest," it said in a statement.

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani also urged serious ceasefire efforts to stop what he called Israel's aggression.

The chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee urged the U.S. president on Thursday to speed up weapons shipments to Israel, including 2000-pound (907 kg) bombs held up for months over human rights concerns.

One 2,000-pound bomb can rip through thick concrete and metal, creating a wide blast radius.

Representative Michael McCaul said in a letter sent to Biden and seen by Reuters that such large bombs were operationally necessary as Hamas and Hezbollah were using deeply buried subterranean bunkers and tunnels.

HEZBOLLAH SAYS IT KILLED 17 ISRAELI TROOPS

Israel says its operations in Lebanon seek to allow tens of thousands of its citizens to return home after Hezbollah bombardments during the Gaza war forced them to evacuate from its north.

More than 1.2 million Lebanese have been displaced by Israeli attacks, and nearly 2,000 people have been killed since the start of the Israeli attacks on Lebanon over the last year, most of them in the past two weeks, Lebanese authorities said.

Early on Friay, Lebanon's health ministry said 27 people were killed and 151 wounded over the prior day.

Hezbollah says it has repelled several land operations by Israeli troops, with measures such as ambushes and direct clashes.

The group said it killed 17 Israeli military personnel in combat in southern Lebanon on Thursday, citing its field and security sources. Israeli forces did not comment on the claim.

An Israeli strike killed at least 18 people on Thursday in the Tulkarm refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said, and Israel said it killed a Hamas official in Tulkarm.

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